Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell was born on July 18, 1980. She got the acting and singing bugs in high school when she joined the drama club and performed in class musicals. Bell even secured an agent, as a teen, for local work in the Detroit area. She went on to major in musical theater at NYU before dropping out in 2001 when she landed a role in a Broadway production of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.”

Bell then made her way to Los Angeles, where she scored bit parts in television and film productions before winning the title role in the UPN series “Veronica Mars.” Both Bell and the series received critical acclaim, though it was repeatedly overlooked at awards shows. The show eventually transferred to The CW, and was canceled in 2007 after four seasons. Bell continued to work with the network, however, going on to voice the titular “Gossip Girl” for the drama’s entire run.

Bell played the lead in 2008’s “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” which was her biggest movie role to date, at the time. Additional films that followed included “When In Rome,” “Couples Retreat,” “You Again,” and “Burlesque.” In 2012, Bell was cast as the female lead on Showtime’s “House of Lies,” which is currently in its fourth season. The following year, she and the “Veronica Mars” crew launched a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign to fund a movie sequel, which was released in theaters in 2014. She also voiced the role of Anna in the universally-loved “Frozen” movie.

Bell was engaged to producer Kevin Mann before they split in 2007, the same year she began dating eventual husband Dax Shepard. The stars became engaged in 2010, but famously refused to wed until gay marriage was legalized. In 2013, a few months after the Defense of Marriage Act was struck down, Bell and Shepard got married. They welcomed daughter Lincoln earlier that year, and a second daughter, Delta, in December 2014. Bell is well-known for her activism, and started the #NoKidsPolicy with her husband to boycott media outlets that use photos of children taken by paparazzi.